2005 · Album
Deep Song
Recorded 2005 · Verve Records · Produced by Kurt Rosenwinkel, David Bottrill
Underground Masters in the Studio
A sixth album that brought together New York's jazz underground for something that mattered.
Deep Song arrived as Rosenwinkel's sixth album leading his own band, and the lineup he assembled read like a who's who of serious New York jazz players. Brad Mehldau on piano, Joshua Redman on tenor saxophone, Larry Grenadier on bass, and drummers Ali Jackson and Jeff Ballard formed a group that looked like a commercial move on paper—an all-star lineup designed to sell records. But this wasn't a collection of names thrown together for the occasion. These musicians had already been working in the underground jazz scene together throughout the 1990s, which meant the sessions had real chemistry and shared language. The album balances two standards—"If I Should Lose You" and the title track "Deep Song"—with eight original compositions, three of which had appeared earlier on The Next Step (1995) and The Enemies of Energy (1998). This recasting of older material alongside new work gave the record a sense of maturation, as if Rosenwinkel was revisiting ideas with fresh ears and a stronger band. AllMusic gave it four stars, which signals genuine strength across the board. The album connected with serious listeners and held its own against the deeper cuts in Rosenwinkel's catalog without needing to compromise what made the music work.
Who's playing
Larry Grenadierbass
Brad Mehldaupiano
Kurt Rosenwinkelguitar
Joshua Redmantenor saxophone
Ali Jacksonmembranophone
Jeff Ballardmembranophone
Where next?
More by Kurt Rosenwinkel
A Lovesome Thing 2012
Undercover: Live at the Village Vanguard 2023
Our Secret World 2010
The Enemies of Energy 2000
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
